Bush aide: We should have sanctioned Russia over Georgia

May 1, 2014
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Stephen Hadley / MANDEL NGAN, AFP/Getty Images

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

As President Obama and allies sanction Russia over its incursion into Ukraine, a top aide to President George W. Bush says similar action should have been taken after Russian military activity in Georgia in 2008.

"In retrospect, we failed by not getting economic sanctions in place over Georgia," said Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser at the time.

Speaking during a conference held by the Atlantic, Hadley did note that other things were going on in August of 2008, according to a Bloomberg report.

"We were four months, five months before the end of an administration in the middle of the biggest financial and economic meltdown since the Depression," Hadley said. "And so when you go to the Situation Room and say, 'I think we ought to sanction Russia over Georgia,' people say, 'Are you not reading the papers?"'

Said Hadley: "So it was a difficult time, but I think it still was a mistake."